Backyard in December
December 11, 2010
I know that for most people doing yard work isn't on the to-do list during the month of December, but this is the central coast of California, and our mild-to-warm days coupled with some gentle rain showers made it necessary for me to pull out the push mower today and deal with the shaggy front lawn as well as the scattering of leaves on the sidewalk and in the gutter.
Luckily, I only have to do the front yard, as this past spring we had our backyard completely redone so it's very low maintenance! It's also looking fantastic and I think all the plants survived the hard freeze we had a week or so ago (and by hard freeze I mean our overnight lows were 17 to 20 degrees). I was particularly concerned about our little Madrone tree, but as you can see from the top photo, it looks good. Also looking good is our little iris garden (especially since mom cleaned out all the white flowers and trimmed off all the dead leaves).
While you can't really tell from the picture, trust me, this rosemary plant is COVERED with bees!
And, I was pleased to see some lovely new growth on the Oregon gooseberry plant:
But I think my favourite thing in the backyard right now is our birch tree which still has most of its leaves, all of which have turned a beautiful yellow colour:
Mom and I were really happy to have such a beautiful Saturday to get the yard work done, as it looks like there's more rain coming this next weekend! Of course that means more yardwork in my future, but I don't mind. It's great exercise and is so very satisfying when we're all done mowing, raking, blowing and sweeping, and looking over a beautifully manicured front lawn!